A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



profits of the town were divided between the king and the earl in the usual 

 proportion of 2 : i.^ The burgesses were for the most part free to be whose 

 men they would, since we read that the king and Harold had each one man 

 who could not withdraw himself.' The total render was £2'^^ divided 

 between the king and earl; £1 is. 4^. in corrodies, or perhaps in lieu of food/ 

 six ' sestiers ' of honey, a bear and six bear hounds. 



At the date of the survey the town had suffered severely through Earl 

 Ralf's rebellion and by a fire.* Many of the burgesses had fled and others 

 were too poor to pay their geld. The building of the castle had also taken 

 the sites of 98 houses, 81 in the borough and 17 in Harold's soke. Not- 

 withstanding this, the render was rather more than doubled. 



Side by side with the old borough was the new borough of Norwich, 

 which was rapidly growing. Earl Ralf had granted a portion of his demesne 

 to the king to make a new borough, the profits of which were to be shared 

 in the same proportion as those of the old. The new town must have offered 

 easier conditions than the old, since the burgesses only paid a penny per head 

 by way of ' custom ' and were presumably free of geld.^ The original 

 42 burgesses, 36 French and 6 English, had been replaced by 41 Frenchmen, 

 but there were besides 83 belonging to other lords, and one waste house-place.* 

 The new borough had its own church, founded by the earl. The churches in 

 the old borough belonged mainly to the burgesses collectively, those in private 

 hands being expressly mentioned. The bishop's see was not yet transferred 

 from Thetford, but the arrangements for the transfer had been made.^ There 

 seems to have been no mint actually in operation at this date in Norwich, 

 though the bishop had leave to have one moneyer there. The county mint 

 was presumably that of Thetford, and Thetford coins seem much commoner 

 than Norwich coins for the reigns both of King Edward and King William. 



The account of Thetford is especially interesting as illustrating the rigid 

 division of the borough and all the land belonging to it between the king 

 and the earl. Thetford seems to have had more land within its limits than 

 Norwich, and on the Norfolk side of the river this land was half arable and 

 half pasture ; on the Suffolk side all was arable. The proportion of arable 

 land to pasture was thus also 2:1. The render of Thetford had been 

 increased in almost the same proportion as that of Norwich. Here also we 

 find a honey-rent, and a render of goat-skins and ox-hides as well.* Besides 

 the king's holding in Thetford we find that Roger Bigod had two plough- 

 lands there, including twenty bordars, who paid poll-tax only to the king.' 

 The large number of burgesses at Thetford on the eve of the Conquest should 

 be observed, as testifying to its importance at that time. 



While Norwich and Thetford ranked as separate hundreds, Yarmouth 

 was the chief town of three hundreds.^" Here also we find the customary 

 division of the profits between the king and the earl ; the portion of Yarmouth 

 in East Flegg gelded at I2d'., going with Caister, Ormesby, and Scratby to 



' Ballard, Ti( Domesday Boroughs, 41-43. 



' Ibid. 49; Dom. Bk. f. 1 16. Mr. Hudson suggests that these were the king's and Harold's bailiffs 

 respectively {JR.ec. of None. pp. i sq.). 

 ' Cf. y. C. H. Esse.x, i, 420. 

 * Dom. Bk. f. 1 1 73. 



' Ballard, Domesday Boroughs, 68, 69. ^ Dom. Bk. f. 1 18. ' Ibid. f. 117. 



Mbid.f. 119. 'Ibid.f. 173. '"Ibid. f. 118. 



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